Ahh, autumn. Halloween costumes, fall foliage, carving Jack-O-Lanterns and enjoying the crisp bite of a fresh apple. Those of use who live in New England often cite this season as the finest of the year, prior to the long nights and cold days of winter. There is one part of it that I don’t look […]

Ahh, autumn. Halloween costumes, fall foliage, carving Jack-O-Lanterns and enjoying the crisp bite of a fresh apple. Those of use who live in New England often cite this season as the finest of the year, prior to the long nights and cold days of winter. There is one part of it that I don’t look forward to as a parent of small children, and a sleep doctor: the end of Daylight Savings Time (DST) when the clock falls back by one hour. This year, clocks in the United States will fall back by one hour at 2 AM on Sunday, November 3th. There is some evidence that DST is associated with adverse health and safety effects, but this is controversial; Brad Plumer nicely outlined this in the Washington Post.

What is Daylight Savings Time? When Does it End

 I always have to pause and think about these terms because they are pretty confusing. Here’s a brief primer:

1. When is daylight saving time? “Daylight Saving Time”  (or DST) refers to the practice of advancing the clock an hour later for the summer months for an extra hour of daylight. In 2016, it occurs between March 13th and November sixth.
2. What happens when daylight saving time ends? The end of DST occurs when the clock is dialed back an hour, which we call “falling back”.
3. Why do you keep calling it daylight SAVING time? Although it sounds weird, “daylight savings time” is incorrect; it is correct to say daylight saving time. But don’t be pedantic about correcting people.

What does “falling back” do to kids’ sleep?

If you don’t have children and don’t work nights (medical residents on call that night– I feel for you as you will be on call for another hour), congratulations! You get an extra hour of sleep. For those of us with little children who get up earlier, however, this can be painful. The reason is that little children tend to get up earlier than their parents would like them to. Thus, a child who is sleeping from 8 PM to 6 AM will now be on a 7 PM to 5 AM schedule. The sleep period has not moved, but the clock has. In general, early risers DO WORSE with falling back.

There is not much research on this, especially in children, but an abstract from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine meeting from 2023 looked at sleep data from 510 infants before and after the sleep change. The authors found:

• Infants in the 3-6 month age range had FEWER night time awakenings in the following week
• The midpoint of the children’s sleep period was about ten minutes earlier for ONE week after the transition.

This indicates that children were waking up earlier for at least a week after the transition

Teenagers are a different story as they usually have problems with getting up late– thus they struggle with the beginning of DST, or “springing ahead.“

Teenagers Benefit from Falling Back

Unlike little kids, teenagers naturally tend to stay up later and struggle to get up in the morning. Thus, “falling back” tends to feel pretty great for your teenager  as the world essentially moves closer to his or her natural sleep schedule.

If you want to capitalize on this, I encourage teens to try to stay on the clock time and not use this as an excuse to stay up later. Practically speaking, this means continuing to going to bed a bit earlier based on clock time. For example, if your teen struggles to fall asleep before 11:30 PM, this is a good opportunity to have her go to sleep at 10:30 PM as it will “feel” the same.

Preparing your child for falling back: tips and strategies

First of all, you don’t need to do anything! Your child will be fine. But if your child gets up uncomfortably early, a quick intervention may be helpful.

Fortunately this is pretty easy:

Just move your child’s sleep period later by 30 minutes for three days before “falling back” and then back to their old schedule on the “new time”, effectively moving their sleep period an hour later.

How to prepare your child for falling back

Let’s take the example of a child who is on a set 8pm to 6am wake schedule. The day after daylight savings time, this child will be sleeping from 7pm to 5am. Ouch! 5am is pretty earlier.

Fortunately, it is pretty easy to address this. I would just move your child’s schedule later by 30 minutes for 3 days prior to the transition.

In this example, you will have your child go to sleep at 8:30 PM to 6:30 AM (DST– OLD TIME) for three days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) before falling back, then move them back to the old clock schedule at the new time (8 PM to 6 AM STANDARD TIME).

Not everyone’s child will sleep in 30 minutes later but the important thing is to move bedtime. This approach will hopefully cushion the landing from “falling back” and help you get a little more shuteye.  I have found this to be useful in my household and my clinic, where the ramifications of DST seem to extend beyond a simple shift; many children seem to have disrupted sleep at night as well around this transitional period.

In my experience, these difficulties may be exaggerated in children with autism, so it may be worth a more gradual transition in sleep periods. If early morning awakenings remain an issue, here are some more strategies for addressing them.

The controversy around DST

We all enjoy the extended light period in the summertime with DST. Here’s the problem with it– it does not align correctly with our body clocks. In Standard Time, noon occurs at solar noon– when the sun is highest in the sky. When we shift to DST, we are changing our biological relationship to time. Many professional organizations, such as the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, recommend a shift to Standard Time year round. There are powerful lobbying groups against it– most prominently golf (DST results in more golfing and more revenue), and Big Candy (there is a reason DST ends after Halloween– so kids can go trick or treating later. Here’s a great documentary on the role of Big Gold and Big Candy extending DST, and the value of permanent standard time.

Further reading

I wrote an article on Daylight Savings Time and children for the New York Times which you can read here. 

I was also quoted in an article on this issue in the Wall Street Journal.

Why permanent Daylight Saving Time is a terrible idea for kids

A nice article on Falling Back from McMaster University

I’d love to hear about your experiences with this. Has this been a problem for you in the past?

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